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Friday 13 December 2024
Welcome to the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Fourth Edition. Some sample entries appear below. Click here for the Introduction; here for the masthead; here for Acknowledgments; here for the FAQ; here for advice on citations. Find entries via the search box above (more details here) or browse the menu categories in the grey bar at the top of this page.
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Musgrave, David
(1973- ) UK artist and author whose first novel, Lambda (2022), is set in an Alternate World version of London co-inhabited by humans and lambdas, the latter being extremely tiny aquatic mammals, unregistered immigrants who establish a Wainscot Society in an unexpectedly welcoming United Kingdom. Sadly, a bombing unconnected to the lambdas excites the ...
Mind Magic
US Pulp magazine, six issues, June to December 1931, monthly except for a combined September/October 1931 issue; retitled My Self for the last two issues; published by Shade Publishing, Philadelphia. Edited by G R Bay, uncredited for the first four issues. A Fantasy magazine always struggling to survive, Mind Magic published mainly articles and fiction on occult subjects. August Derleth, Ralph ...
Woodroffe, Patrick
(1940-2014) British artist. His academic background was in modern languages, not art, and he taught French and German for several years until the popularity of his paintings allowed him to focus exclusively on his art. His early sf book covers stood out for a number of reasons: an appealingly childlike aura, unusual creativity, meticulous attention to detail, and bright, surprising colours. It is difficult to single out particular examples, but his cover for the 1973 paperback edition of Robert ...
Hypnosis
This mildly controversial and frequently misrepresented technique of Psychology – also known in its early days as mesmerism – is generally depicted in sf as very much more rapid and reliable than any known medical hypnosis. An extreme case is Edgar Allan Poe's "The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar" (December 1845 American Whig Review), whose titular subject dies but remains conscious even in decay until the ...
Franklin, Alfred
(1830-1917) French librarian, historian and author whose Les Ruines de Paris en 4875: Documents officiels et inédits (1875; trans Brian Stableford as "The Ruins of Paris in 4875" in Investigations of the Future [anth 2012 pod]) describes an expedition in 4875 from New Caledonia to the ruins of Paris (see Ruins and Futurity), which has been destroyed by a great undescribed ...
Langford, David
(1953- ) UK author, critic, editor, publisher and sf fan, in the latter capacity recipient of 21 Hugo awards for fan writing – some of the best of his several hundred pieces are assembled as Let's Hear It for the Deaf Man (coll 1992 chap US; much exp vt The Silence of the Langford 1996; exp 2015 ebook) as Dave Langford, edited by Ben Yalow – plus five Best Fanzine Hugos ...